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Research Article | DOI: https://doi.org/10.31579/2637-8892/212
Department of Psychology, The National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv 03041, Heroiv Oborony Street, 15, Kyiv, Ukraine.
*Corresponding Author: Martyniuk I, Department of Psychology, The National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv 03041, Heroiv Oborony Street, 15, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Citation: Martyniuk I.., (2023), The Relationship Between Mental States and The Quality of Students’ Education in War Conditions, Psychology and Mental Health Care, 7(2): DOI:10.31579/2637-8892/212
Copyright: © 2023, Evgeny Bryndin. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received: 24 March 2023 | Accepted: 07 April 2023 | Published: 14 April 2023
Keywords: quality of student learning; anxiety; fatigue; depression; mood; anhedonia
The conditions of war, in which the people of Ukraine have been living for more than a year, pose a risk to the psychological well-being of an individual. The article presents the results of an empirical study of the mental state and changes in the quality of education of student youth. The following indicators of students’ mental states were measured: "calmness–anxiety", "energy–fatigue", "exaltation–depression", levels of low mood, and the manifestation of anhedonia. A comparison of students’ mental state indicators was carried out. Three groups of students were distinguished: those with an improvement in the quality of education, without changes in the quality of education, with a decrease in the quality of education.
It was concluded that the improvement of the quality of students’ education is combined with the following indicators of mental states: a sense of peace, energy, elation, a normal mood, and a preserved ability to enjoy various aspects of life. Instead, a decrease in the quality of learning is more often accompanied by a feeling of fatigue, manifestation of anhedonia. It is proposed that by helping students to improve the quality of their studies, they will contribute to the improvement of their mental state.
For more than a year, people in Ukraine have been living in conditions of war, which creates a tremendous amount of stress. Being forced to adapt to abnormal conditions, people continue to work, study, and perform their daily duties. It is clear that the need to function in extreme conditions create an additional burden on the psyche, causes a change in its state and necessarily affects the activity of the individual.
We conducted an empirical study on a sample of students to find out how a person’s activity changed during a year of living in extreme conditions and how it is related to his mental state.
We proceed from the following hypothesis:
being in extreme conditions of war leads to a change in the emotional state of the individual (increases anxiety, causes fatigue, depression), causes a decrease in mood and destroys the ability to experience pleasure from various aspects of life, all of which collectively lead to decrease in the quality of education.
The purpose of our study was to check the relationship between students’ perception of changes in the quality of their studies and indicators of their mental states.
We have developed comparative, empirical research. A block of questionnaires (questionnaire, A. Wessman and D. Rix’s "Self-Assessment of Emotional States" method) and scale evaluation (The scale of low mood (sub-depression) from the questionnaire of V. Zung, the anhedonia scale of Stait-Hamilton) were used. The study collected data on (a) respondents' subjective perception of changes in the quality of education during the war and (b) indicators of their mental states: calmness – anxiety, energy – fatigue, elation – depression, the degree of mood reduction and the depth of the depressive state, and the severity of anhedonia. The research contains two parts, which is due to the specifics of the comparative study.
The first part collects information on the respondents' subjective perception of changes in the quality of education during the war. A survey was used, for this purpose, during which the respondents had to choose the answers to the question: "How would you describe your studies at the university during the last year?" The answer options given were as follows: a) the same as before b) less quality c) better quality d) other.
In the second part of the research, we studied mental states: calmness – anxiety, energy – fatigue, elation – depression (was diagnosed by the A Wessman and D Rix’s "Self-Assessment of Emotional States" method), the degree of mood reduction and the depth of the depressive state (studied by the scale of low mood (sub-depression) from the questionnaire of V Zung), the severity of anhedonia (studied using the anhedonia scale of Stait-Hamilton). Program SPSS.24.0 was used to compare the indicators of the mental states of students with different activities. Frequency analysis was used to determine the percentage of respondents, with different subjective perception of changes in the quality of their education. Fisher’s φ-angular transformation was used to calculate the reliability of differences between independent groups of people, according to the criteria of the individual’s subjective perception of changes in the quality of education during the war.
The study was conducted on a sample of 155 students of all bachelor’s and master’s courses of the university on the day of the anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Application of the described methods made it possible to obtain the following results.
Subjective feelings of changes in the quality of education
The majority of respondents (62.5%) note that the quality of their education has not changed over the past year. A large part (24%) feels that the quality of their education has deteriorated during the war. It was also revealed that a part of students (13.5%) felt that the quality of their education improved during the last year.
Further, the analysis of indicators of mental states was carried out within three groups of subjects: 1) with a feeling of improvement in the quality of education, 2) without changes in the quality of education, 3) with a feeling of a decrease in the quality of education.
Emotional states of subjects with different feelings of changes in the quality of education
The study of emotional states according t the indicators "calmness – anxiety", "energy – fatigue", "elation – depression" proved the presence of differences between groups in the distribution of percentages of respondents with different levels of manifestation of such indicators (see Table 1).
| Groups of subjects | N studied | % of the studied by indicators | ||||||||
| Calmness-anxiety | Energy-fatigue | Elevation-depression | ||||||||
| Severe anxiety | Indicators are balanced | Calm dominates | Severe fatigue | Indicators are balanced | Vigor dominates | Severe depression | Indicators are balanced | Elation dominates | ||
| Students whose quality of education has improved | 21 | 23.8 | 28.6 | 47.6 | 9.5 | 61.9 | 28.6 | 4.8 | 66.6 | 28.6 |
| Students whose quality of education has not changed | 97 | 26.8 | 49.5 | 23.7 | 34 | 54.6 | 11.4 | 14.5 | 68 | 17.5 |
| Students whose quality of education has deteriorated | 37 | 41 | 35 | 24 | 46 | 48.6 | 5.4 | 24 | 68 | 8 |
| Sample as a whole | 155 | 30 | 43 | 27 | 34 | 54 | 12 | 15 | 68 | 17 |
Table 1: Results of frequency analysis of indicators of emotional states in respondents, N=155
As we can see from Table 1, with regard to the "calmness – anxiety" indicator, among the subjects who note an improvement in the quality of their studies, the largest share is of individuals who are dominated by calmness (47.6%); among the subjects without changes in the quality of education, the largest share of persons with balanced indicators of calmness and anxiety (49.5%); among the subject with a reduced quality of education, the share of person with severe anxiety is the largest (41%).
Regarding the "energy – fatigue" indicator, among all the studied groups, the largest share of people in whom these indicators are balanced: 61.9% – in the group with improvement in the quality of education, 54.6% – in the group without changes in the quality of education, and 48.6% in the group with reduced indicators of the quality of education.
The situation in the groups with the "elevation – depression" indicator is similar: in all groups, the shares of people with balanced indicators are the largest (66.6% – in the first group, 68% – in the second and third groups).
At the same time, a comparison between groups of the percentages of people with different indicators of emotional states using the Fisher angular transformation method made it possible to identify the following statistically significant differences:
Mood of respondents with different perception of changes in the quality of education
The study of mood proved the existence of differences between groups in the distribution of percentages of respondents with different levels of manifestation of its decrease (see Table 2).
| Groups of subjects | N experimental | % of the studied by indicators | |||
| Mood is normal (no decrease) | A pronounced slight decrease in mood | Significant decrease in mood | Profound decreased mood (subdepression) | ||
| Students whose quality of education has improved | 21 | 86 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Students whose quality of education has not changed | 97 | 74 | 24 | 2 | 0 |
| Students whose quality of education has deteriorated | 37 | 64.9 | 16.2 | 18.9 | 0 |
| Sample as a whole | 155 | 73.6 | 20.6 | 5.8 | 0 |
Table 2: Results of frequency analysis of indicators of low mood of respondents, N=155
As we can see from the Table 2, among all the studied groups, the largest share of persons whose mood is normal (no decline).
At the same time, a comparison between groups of the percentages of people with different indicators of mood reduction using the Fisher angular transformation method made it possible to identify the following statistically significant differences:
Anhedonia of respondents with different perceptions of changes in the quality of education
The study of anhedonia proved the presence of differences between groups in the distribution of percentages of respondents with different levels of its [removed]see Table 3).
| Groups of subjects | N experimental | % of the studied by indicators | |||||
| The ability to have fun is normal | Low | Downgraded | Medium | Increased | High | ||
| Students whose quality of education has improved | 21 | 95 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Students whose quality of education has not changed | 97 | 78.4 | 7.2 | 11.4 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Students whose quality of education has deteriorated | 37 | 62.2 | 13.5 | 16.2 | 8.1 | 0 | 0 |
| Sample as a whole | 155 | 76.8 | 7.7 | 11.6 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 0 |
Table 3: Results of frequency analysis of anhedonia of respondents, N=155
As we can see from Table 3, among all the studied groups, the largest share of persons able to derive pleasure from various aspects of life (no anhedonia).
At the same time, a comparison between groups of the percentages of people with different indicators of anhedonia using the Fisher angular transformation method made it possible to identify the following statistically significant differences:
The obtained results are the basis for a number of conclusions.
Despite the extreme conditions of the war, most students are able to maintain the quality of their studies at the usual level.
In the extreme conditions of war, a significant proportion of students experience a deterioration in the quality of their studies, which can be both a consequence of stress, and itself can serve as an additional source of stress.
There is a part of students who in extreme conditions due to various reasons (greater awareness of their life, increased responsibility for their actions, sublimation of negative experiences, natural course of development) feels an improvement in the quality of their studies.
Students whose quality of education has improved significantly more often than others have a dominant feeling of calmness, energy, elation, a normal mood, a preserved ability to enjoy various aspects of life; significantly less often have a pronounced feeling of fatigue and depression, a significant decrease in mood, a low and medium level of anhedonia.
Among students whose quality of education remained, in comparison with the group of students who note a decrease in the quality of their education, cases of pronounced fatigue, low and medium levels of anhedonia occur significantly less often, and significantly more often have a preserved ability to enjoy various aspects of life.
Preservation of positive indicators of emotional states, mood and ability to enjoy life contributes to improving the quality of students’ education.
Pronounced fatigue, the development of anhedonia is accompanied by a decrease in the quality of student learning.
The presence of a connection between the mental state and the quality of education gives grounds for concluding that it is bilateral. Therefore, by helping students to improve their learning (by diversifying it, providing additional advisory assistance), teachers can contribute to improving indicators of their psychological well-being.
The results obtained by us regarding the indicators of the mental state of the subjects are consistent with the research data of the Institute of Social and Political Psychology (ispp, 2022), conducted half a year after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. According to these data, representatives of all demographic groups and regions of the country rated their psychological well-being quite highly (6.7 points out of 9 possible).
During our research, other indicators were also studied (Martyniuk I., 2023). In particular, data were presented, according to which the distribution of respondents with different levels of indicators of mental states is similar among those who spent most of their time in Ukraine and those who spent most of their time abroad.
In general, studies of the impact of extreme war conditions a various category of the population, including student youth, are just beginning and are important for finding ways to further correct their negative consequences.
Limitation of the application of the obtained results
The results were obtained from a sample of respondents from one university, without differentiation of the level of students’ stressful experiences.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the university students who took part in the empirical study, and continues his studies in the conditions of war. Thanks to everyone working towards relieving the stress of war in Ukraine.
Sources of support: None.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
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